It turns out that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is not just a complicated choice based on his divisive nature and his radicalized views of the world. He also has serious conflicts of interest that are blindingly obvious to both journalists and those in the business community.
He has business holdings across a wide-array of categories and has significant debt that would make whatever he proposes economically automatically suspect. He currently owes over 100 million dollars to a German bank that has a history of battling with U.S. regulators and has a total of 16 loans which add up to over 355 million dollars.
However, this large amount of debt is not even the biggest conflict that would arise if Trump became President of the United States. His biggest conflict would be his company’s 200 million dollar hotel project in the Old Post Office Building.
The Old Post Office Building is owned by the federal government and was leased to the Trump organization for the next 60 years. If Trump became president, it would be very likely he (or his children) would be negotiating with the federal government over matters concerning the Trump International Hotel.
Trump’s company was able to win the bid over BP Metropolitan Investors, LLC, a consortium that includes Hilton Hotels. BPMI appealed the decision to the General Services Administration saying that Trump’s company would not be able to meet the terms of their deal.
It turns out they might be right after all. Trump’s 200 million dollar budgetary proposal was sixty million more than BPMI’s proposal. Yet, Trump guaranteed profits that greatly surpassed what any of the rivaling bids were offering.
Other critics of Trump’s proposal have noted that his hotel would have to charge outrageous prices in order to turn the profit they guaranteed the federal government. Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein did an analysis of Trump’s hotel project and concluded his findings by saying:
“None of the other experienced bidders came anywhere close to Trump’s numbers—and for good reason: They make no economic sense. Industry experts tell me that to justify that level of investment and that rent, Trump would have to fetch average room rates of at least…$750, which is far above the $500-plus average that even the city’s top hotel, the Four Seasons in Georgetown, commands.”
Of course if Trump can surpass industry expectations and fill rooms at these prices, then none of this will matter. But the likelihood, based on current comps in the area, of this happening is not very high. Which means that Trump’s company would have to go back to the General Services Administration and renegotiate the terms of the deal in order to have a shot at turning a profit.
Trump’s company has also been sparring with the General Services Administration over the preservation of the building. The government is very strict about keeping certain architectural features the same, but Trump and his team have already switched architects for this project and have government officials worried about what might be done to the building.
The issues of profitability and architectural preservation are just two of the current problems that critics see as a potential minefield if Donald Trump were to win the presidency. Jessica Tillipman, a law professor at George Washington University who specializes in government ethics, talks about Trump’s massive conflict of interest concerning the Old Post Office Building deal. She said:
“You’d be kidding yourself if you don’t think the president of the United States has influence over this. And he’s taken no affirmative steps to separate himself from this conflict of interest. I don’t know how this is not a bigger issue. It’s crazy.”
While the president is not subject to the same ethics standards as other members of the executive branch, it is widely understood that he or she set up a blind trust or hand over their assets to a neutral party while in office.
It is unclear what Donald Trump plans to do about all of his assets and business holdings if he wins the presidency. It is likely, given his history of delivering nothing of substance, he will do nothing about this issue. He could also hand his business and assets over to his kids to manage.
Either way, his massive conflicts of interest will still be there staring all of us in the face if he wins the presidency. A prospect that should remind us all that Trump will put his own interests ahead of the interests of the American people if it will earn him a buck.
Here is a video detailing Donald Trump’s many conflicts of interest and how they would affect him and us if he won the presidency in November:
Featured Image By Michael Vadon Via Flickr/CC by SA-2.0
